7: Towers

Rayann could feel the hold Myth had on his thoughts slowly slipping away. She knew he required time to meditate and get his mind under control and she knew he withheld a lot of his thoughts when he felt as though they would be too much for her. On the rare occasions when he had forgotten to shield things from her she felt almost overwhelmed by the sheer volume and velocity in which his thoughts moved through his mind. As she watched his retreating back, she knew he needed this time knowing he would come back to her when he felt he could control his thoughts once more.

As Kali hugged her, Rayann felt the calmness Kali had wash over her. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to let it out slowly, she nodded then pulled back to glance down at Kali’s hand pressing against her abdomen. Lifting her gaze to Kali’s, she smiled sadly and reached out to touch Kali’s cheek.

~I know, Kali. I know.~

Nodding to Nol as he explained what he was going to do, she smiled at the Silver Dragon when he told her and Kali of his leave. As they sat down and Kali talked to Rayann about the failures Rorie was responsible for, Rayann began to view things in a broader view. Her mind was already working and as Kali revealed more to her, Rayann knew Kali was right. All the way around. But to hear Lachlan was somehow guiding his granddaughter made a lump form in Rayann’s throat and she swallowed hard to make it go away.

~Knowing Rorie, he will do all he can to throw us off. Knowing his life will now depend on his success, he will find a way to reach us, here. While it will be interesting to see how he will do that with Nol’s wardings, I’m sure he has something up his sleeve for just such an event. We may have caught him by surprise twice, but I highly doubt we would be able to do that a third time. Of course we have something he isn’t counting on either.~

When Kali looked at her mother, Rayann smiled lovingly.

~Papa.~

Kali smiled as Rayann spoke and she nodded in agreement, “Who knows the son better than the Father?” Kali looked at Rayann and she would see the twinkle in her daughter’s eye. “So how far along are you?” She smiled warmly as she was gripping the idea of her growing in her mother’s womb. It amazed her that she was in this unique position, a place that nobody on all of Krynn had ever been. Talking to her mother about being pregnant WITH HER, she couldn’t help but feel giddy about the whole idea.

Rayann and Kali spent a good part of the afternoon sitting in the upper room of the tower. They were there so long that Kali lost track of the time and suddenly realized it was dark. She shoke her head and started laughing, “My goodness mother, how time flies.” She stood and extended a hand to Rayann to help her up, “We need to get you, and me, and … me something to eat.” She laughed at her own wit and pulled Rayann to her feet. “I think both of me would like some pancakes, breakfast for dinner is simply the best!” She smiled again and screamed with excitement all of a sudden, turning to the large table and waving her had, the pancakes and syrups appearing from thin air, “I wish I could conjure food like that when I wasn’t in the tower!”

Rayann couldn’t help but laugh softly at her daughter’s enthusiasm. When she asked her mother how far along she was, Rayann did some quick calculations and guessed it to be about a month and a half to two months.

As they talked, Rayann spoke about the fears she had at carrying a child within her and the delivery, of course. She confessed it was now she really missed her own mother and wished Deidre were with her now to at least let her know what she might expect in the coming months. From everything she had picked up on from her mother, the birth of Rorie and herself wasn’t all that difficult, even though Deidre was giving birth to twins. Rayann hoped things would go just as smoothly for her as well.

Rayann also confessed to Kali that she wanted to give Myth a son some day. While she knew neither Kali nor any future children, male or female, would inherit the throne of the Elven nation, she still wanted to give Myth a son.

By the time Kali realized it was dark outside and she was quite hungry, Rayann felt her own ravenous appetite rear its ugly head. Kali’s suggestion of breakfast for dinner seemed to be exactly what Rayann was craving and as the food appeared on the table, Rayann laughed again as Kali’s excitement seemed to light up the whole floor they occupied.

~You and me both, Kali. Maybe we should work on that and figure out a way to do that.~

Turning Piramay knelt down next to the corpse of the dead knight with a smile. She reached into the pocket of her cloak fishing for the soul well with her right hand as her left carved a series of runes into the flesh of the fallen knight. Finding the soul well she stood offering the small black object to Fifth with a grin. As he took it from her hand she shifted her attention to the body of the knight once more. The temperature around her began to rise for a few moments as her power gathered.

"Indeed such is the way of war... As pathetic as the solomnic knights are they are still a well drilled military unit. This soldiers death will go unnoticed for the moment..."

She snapped her finger and the runes in the body glowed for but a moment before the body turned to ash and began to blow away with the cliff winds. The disposal of the body was one of her trademark tricks. The ability to turn a body to ash in moments was somethign she could only do to the dead. Not for a lack of trying on her part though, the living had a habit of resisting the effects of the spell carved into the flesh by sheer will or by simply wiggling around to much causing an error in the spells carving.

She slipped her hand into the ash letting it fall from her hand into the wind with a smile. "It is hard to know that something is amiss with no body."

It felt good to be out in the open for the first time in months. Piramay's last outing did not bode well for one of the queen's higher generals and as a result she had not been allowed to take part inany of the recent battles. One did not off a consort of the queen and walk away unpunished in most cases. The fact she was here with Fifth told her that whatever reason he gave the queen for this campaign must have been a damn good one.

Fifth watched with delight as Piramay practiced her art with heat and flame, it was always a thrill to watch her weave her unique abilities, many of which she was the sole person capable. “Looks like that is that.”

He held the Soul Well in his hand and brought his hand above it, hissing ancient words of magic. His words however were laced with a darkness much more sinister, the art of Necromancy was a delicate and highly specialized magic that most wizards dared not practice, for the stigma was isolationist, and rightfully so. Few would trust a Necromancer for fear that their energy or life would be used to perform his or her next endeavor. As he finished the incantation the top of the soul well slowly popped up from the main body of the device and opened like a lily, and long shard of metal ‘growing’ from the center and it too opened up revealing three prongs. “The well will harvest the souls as they leave the bodies, as I said, you just do what you do and pay no regard to the time it takes me to harvest the energy. If we try to do this one at a time it will take us years, so when you start the slaughter I will gather as many as I am able.”

He looked down at the town of Northkeep. The walls were high and formidable, as one would expect given that the Knights of Solamnia were stationed there. This was their center of operations for the whole region, and knew that there was most likely many highly ranked officers within, Fifth watched the walls for a few minutes before speaking to Piramay. “The flag of the high council is set on the mast.” Fifth pointed to the main keep, smiling as he turned to Piramay, “You know what that means, The heads of the order of the sword, crown and rose are in the keep.” He turned his gaze back to the main keep. “This could prove to be much more fun than I originally thought.”